Self-railing trackway



Nov. 22, 1932. H. B. FLOWER 1,883,760

SELF RAILING TRACKWAY Filed May 18, 1932 s Sheets-Sheet 1 H- B. Flaw. lN VE-NTOD...

K vQqh ATTORNEYS Y m v RK Em Wm Lm M 1 am w E 5 Nov. 22, 1932.

Filed May 18, 1932 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 H (3 FM INVENTOR YTLW ,Kwwhuwbifi ATTORNEYS Patented Nov. 22, 1932 HAnRYBUTn R FLOWER, F BAYvILLnNEwYoRK,

sELr-RAILIne TRAckwAY ."Application filed llfaylB, 1932. Serial m 611,9Q9l

This invention 'is a self-railin'g trackway; especially adapted to the self railing of cars 161' trains upon toy railways -such as miniature electric railways with cu'rrent supplied through the wheel rails and a central third rail. V I i The general object of the invention is to afford asimple, convenient and effective 0011- struction. of miniature railway which will operate automatically, by a mere longitudinal rollingalong the trackway, to place cars or whole trains properly upon thetracks, referringboth to theinitial setting or railing ofthe cars and trains or to. the replacing on rerailing the same when derailed. The cars may thus be manually lifted, singly or in groups, and set "approximately in position and then shifted correctly on to therailsby simply rolling them along upon the device of thisinvention; Heretofore, so ,faras I'am aware, it has been necessary to'givelindividual and manual attention to the, placement upon the tracks of eachpair of wheels 01 wheel truck, throughoutfthe length of the trainyand the present invention eliminates thistroublesome requirement and provides a railway t'rack unit, which may be inserted at af dispatching or other "convenient point on the system, to facilitate the quick applying of the rolling stock to the tracks. A; special object is to adapt the principles of the invention touse with an electric railway having a central third rail. 1 Other objects and advantages of the inven tion willbe pointed out in the hereinafter following description of an illustrative embodiment thereof or will-be understoodto'those conversant with the subject. To the attainment of such objects and advantages the present invention consists in the novel selfrailing railway construction and the novel features of combination and. arrangement herein illustrated or described.

a perspective plan view of a suflicient length of'railway construction to disclose the prin ciples of the present invention. h Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section 'In the accompanying drawings Figure l i s' taken along the central-line 2 2 013mg. 1.

Fig; 3 is avertical transverse section taken y no along the line 3+3 of Fig. 1.

' V F igA is a verticaltransverse sectio tak h along the'line Hof Fig. 1. V 1 Fig. 5 's atop plan view partly in dia gramrshowing the self railing action'ofthe V invention; v i C1 Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. 5 showing'a car being railed from a different initial set I j F 7 is a top" plan view .of theinvention with the showing of car and wheels omitted. Describing the invention as applied to a toy elect-ricyrailway, Fig. 1 shows a pair of spaced apart rails10 of ordinary type. These may 5 for example be produced from sheet metal, and-'t-he rails are shown held inproperyparallel relation 'by cross supports or metallic ties 11, indicatedalso in Fig. 2. "A third rail carrying current toia contactunderneath the car. or engineisshownj mounted centrally between the rails and held by the tie 11, with an insulation 13 interposed. ,As is usualin upon the railsanda rear truck 19 derailed; Y

withitsfwheels offset laterally from the trackspwhilethe samecar is shown at17 and the same trucks in; full lines at 18". and 19 advanced further rightward along the trackway and with the rear truckabout toassume its proper position upon therails. g

Referring now to the self-railing device of- .this invention; this is shown provided asa '1 single or unitary structure or unit QOadapted 95 to be inserted between and coupledto ordinary trackwayunits at each end; {It thereby becomes a' fixedpartof the trackway, preferably'fwithout movable parts,'and'is such as not to interfere with trailic in either direction, G

suchrailways theconstruction is provided in V I un ts of standard lengthfandeach unit may a while always ready for tracking a derailed or newlyplaced car or train. The self-ra1l1ng unit may be built up'but preferably is partly shown the following constructionalelements.

At each end are spaced railsections 22 alining 1. distance from the with the regular rails 10 and perforated to re- V ceive coupling rods14 or having such rods projecting for coupling to another unit; The

' j end rail sections 22 terminate a fractional lends ofthe unitpand between their terminations, at each side, is 10- cated a side section, 23, while between the two side sections 23, 2 3 is a middle section 24 upstanding; like an island from the base. "The several sections 22, 23 and 24 maybe symmetrically arranged both laterally andlongitud'inally so that a car or train maybe set approximately in place and run on to the ra ls from either side and in either direction. I V

The detail constru'ctionof the several sections 22, 23 and 24 maybesubstantially as shown. Thus a groove .25'is shown between the inclined extremity ofeach rail end section 22 'and the inclined edges 26 of the side sections 23 and. preferably each groove is a notch'o'f shallow depth and each edge is bevelledlto facilitate the riding up of the wheel to where its flange passes into the groove.

this arrangement a wheel flange approaching in the converging space between a rail'end section 22 andthe inclined edge 26 of aside section willbe adjusted or cammedinwardly toward the rail, and will eventually roll up upon the bevel of the edge261and finallyfinto and through the groove 25, to drop intoplace upon the straight edge 27 of theside section, which edge is inalinement' with the rail end sections 22. n I v Between each side section. and thesmiddle section 24 is: afull depth groove 29. along which a properlypositioned wheelffiange .may travel. The middle section at each end is formed with converging sideedges 30, each of. these inclined edges being .also bevelled similarly to the edges 26. of the side sections.

' There are thus four inclined. and bevelled. side edges to the middle. section and these are substantially parallel V respectively with the four inclined and bevelled edges26 of theside sectionspand cooperatetherewith in restoring the opposite wheels of a pair of trucks 'to the rails, since, when each whe el is! being guided toward its rail by the inclined edge 30 of the j middle se'ction, theoppositewheel is being 'similarlyguided andlifted over its rail by theinclined edge26 of a side-section.

- the case of an electrically energized railway; the following electrical arrangei With. a toy .railwa as follows," Taking for example; the O&S6. 'Of several cars coupleditogether,' perhaps with a r ments may be provided coordinating the third rail 12 of the'usual trackunit. The

special self railing unit 20 is shown as pro vided at each end with a third rail stretch 35 formed with a coupling rod 15 or recessed to receive one. The end stretch 35 is shown as a separatejmetal piece insulated from the base 21 by-an insulating sheet 36. As bestj seen in Figs. 2 and 4 the stretch35 is secured by an attaching screw 87 passing through the insulation 36I-and itself insulated at its under side by a washer 38. Between the washer and screw head is held the eye 39 of-an insulated wire or connector. 40, having at its other end 7 an eye 41 to conduct electricity to a third rail middle stretch'43, which latter is 'shown as accommodated in a groove formed centrally.

through the middle section 5240f theitracl zunit. The extremities of the third rail middlestrctch 43 are shown sharpened-at-44 and bevelled to aline with the bevelled inclined edges 26 of the section 24. The stretch 43 is insulated-from surrounding parts by -an insulatingv sheet-45, andas shown in Figs. 2and3 the parts maybe secured by one or more attaching screws 46. extended upwardly into the middle stretch 43, the screw itself being insulated by an underneathwasher p held be tween the screw head andfwasher. 'By' this and having the-eye .41Iinserted and arrangement the'middle third rail stretchis energized along with the usual third rails of I the trackwayj; and. the; described connecting arrangement. may be duplicated at both ends of the, unit 20 so that the currentwillbe conducted on beyond to the third rail '12 of the next, railway unit. V I n theoperation maybe locomotive; such a train may be lifted bodily, as by the end cars, andset approximately in position upon thetrackway, for examplerto the left of the special railing unit, and without particular attention to the placing of the individual'wheels upon the tracks. Without lifting; the hands from-the train it need onl'y be at once shifted toward the-right, so that all wheels and trucks .will-roll longitudinally along the special railing unit 1 In this-action all of the wheelsare c-aused-to'roll-on to the train is' ready to be operated; Instead of pulling-the train manually along the track way it may be set in. approximate position, 7

and the current thereupon, applied to cause the advance of the locomotive, its traction serving to drag along the, cars of the train,

which are thus properly set upontheir rails thronghontthe lengtlr of the train. The im- 'provement simple, strong and durable, and

is found to be remarkably effective and convenient for the purposes stated.

There has thus been described a self-railing trackway attaining the objects and advantages referred to; since however various features of combination and arrangement may be modified wihout departing from the invention it is not intended to limit the invention to such features except so far as set forth in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A self-railing trackway construction, comprising an interrupted rail end section at each side, upstanding opposite side sections each having a straight inner edge alining with said end section and an inclined edge converging with the adjacent end section, and with a wheelfiange groove between the end and side sections, and an; upstanding middle section spaced from'the rails and having diverging opposite inclined edges each converging with the adjacent end section. I

2. A trackway construction as in claim 1 and wherein each side section hasan inclined edge at both ends converging with the adjacent section and with shallow notches between sections, and the middlesection hasv opposite inclined edges at both ends also converging with the adjacent end sections.

' 3. A trackway as in claim 1 and wherein is a shallow notch between each end and side section, and each side sectionhas its inclined edge bevelled to'slant up to such notch.

4. A unitary self-railing miniature'trackway unit, comprising a detachable base having fixedly mounted thereon an interrupted rail end section at each side, with coupling means for interconnection to contiguous v trackway units, upstanding opposite side sec tions each having a straight inner edge alining with said rail end sections and an inclined edge converging with the adjacent end section, and with a shallow wheel flange notch or groove between the end and side sec- :'tions, and an upstanding middle section spaced from the rails and having diverging opposite inclined edges each the adjacent end section. I

5. A unit as in claim 4 and wherein each inclined edge of the side and middle sections in also bevelled.

converging with V with the adjacent end section, the inclined 7. A unitary self-railing miniature trackway unit, comprising a detachable base having fixedly mounted thereon aninterrupted railend section at' each side, with coupling means forinterconnection to contiguous trackway units, upstanding opposite side sections each having a straight inner edge alining' V with s'aidrrail end sections andan inclined edgeconverging with the adjacent end section, an upstanding middle section spaced from the rails andhaving diverging opposite inclined edges each converging with the adj acent end section, an end stretch of third rail interrupted short of the middle section, a middle stretch of third rail at said middle section, both of said stretches being-insulated, and insulated connections between such stretches. 1 1

8. A unit as in claim 7 and wherein the middle section is centrally grooved to accommodate'the middle stretch of third rail, and the end stretch of third rail is; adapted to be coupled with the third rail of a regular trackway unit.

In testimony whereof, this specification has been duly signed: by. n

HARRY BUTLER FLOWER.

6. A unitary self-railing miniature trackway unit, comprising a detachable basehaving fixedly mounted thereon an interrupted side sections, and an upstanding middle section spaced from the rails'and having diverglng opposite mcllned edges each converging rail end section at each side, with coupling a 

